Why on earth would anyone trade for a Royal?
The Sox cleared up some roster issues today, trading Chris Getz and Josh Fields to the Kansas City Royals for Mark Teahen. None of the players are of a huge amount of consequence, talent-wise, but it does bring up some interesting roster questions.
Considering the free agent outfield crop looks pretty bleak (would you overpay for World Series winners Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui at inflated prices?), Teahen could be, as Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley initially suggests, a Jermaine Dye replacement. While that doesn’t make much sense from a talent standpoint, I wouldn’t put anything past Ken Williams.
Cowley also wishcasts Gordon Beckham back into the middle infield. The only problem is that he puts Becks at the wrong half of the middle infield. I’ve suggested it before, but I’ll say it again: Beckham—a natural shortstop and a perfectly average fielder (0 FRAA this year)—should be playing shortstop instead of Alexei Ramirez. Putting him at third is a joke.
Ramirez is an ath-a-lete who should be playing in the outfield. His arm is erratic and his mental errors are unendingly frustrating. Just because his athleticism makes him look like an shortstop does not mean he is actually a major league shortstop.
And let’s make something clear: Just because Mark Teahen will stand anywhere you ask him to… That doesn’t mean he’s a third baseman anymore than were you to stick a basketball in my hand and tell me I’m Wilt Chamberlain. Teahen was 15 runs below average last season, spending most of his time (107 games) at third base. He’s not a good fielder and, sure, sticking him in the outfield will help a little (career, he’s -15.1 FRAA in the outfield, which still sucks, but sucks less, as it is compiled over three seasons).
But that brings up the question of his hitting. Quite simply, Mark Teahen is not good enough to play a power position. His career home run total? Fifty-nine in five seasons. His season-high total? Eighteen, in his age-24 season (2006). Last year, he had 12 home runs and slugged .408.
His OBP isn’t much, either. For a guy that was drafted by the Oakland organization during its emphasis on OBP, Teahen was traded, largely, because he wasn’t much at getting to first base, by hook or by crook. Indeed, his career OBP is .331, buoyed by two .350+ OBP seasons in ‘06 and ‘07. Last year, he got on base at a 32% clip.
All this adds up to a .265 EQA, which puts Teahen squarely average. For a wide-open division (hey, Handsome Chairman Mauer isn’t going to do that again, the Royals suck, the Kitties are getting old and Cleveland’s hire of Manny Acta signals that organization is rebuilding), the Sox have to do better than “average guy” at third, second or right field.
(Of course, this is assuming the Sox don’t sign Chone Figgins, which seems more and more inevitable every day.)
